Introduction: One of the top ten major public health problems in developing countries including Ethiopia is the intestinal parasitic infection. Most of the time, intestinal parasitic infections do not show clinical signs and symptoms and also have a number of potential carriers, such as food handlers, which makes it too difficult to eradicate and control. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence and associated factors of intestinal parasitic infection among food handlers at prison, East and West Gojjam, Ethiopia, 2017...

Restaurant workers, whether aware of this or not, may be responsible for spreading Foodborne Diseases (FBD) to consumers. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the knowledge of the risk of FBD can become a gateway to risk perception and cognitive illusions, and how the habitus acts in guiding work practices. The research uses a mixed-methods design with qualitative approach. A study was conducted in six food services during 42 days, which had participatory observation as central method. A Risk Perception Scale and a Locus of Control Questionnaire were applied, helping to obtain data relative to cognitive illusions...

Field investigations were conducted after a small cluster of food poisoning involving six cases was reported. While no stool samples were available from the cases for microbiological testing, Salmonella species was found to be present in the stools of food handlers with gastroenteritis symptoms. Four Salmonella isolates recovered from the food handlers were retrospectively investigated at the genome level using whole-genome sequencing (WGS). WGS showed that S. Anfo (antigenic formulae 39:y:1,2), a rarely isolated serovar, caused infections in the food handlers...

Salmonella is a worldwide foodborne pathogen causing human disease. Food handlers, who are potential carriers of Salmonella, may transmit the pathogen to consumers through food. To determine the prevalence of Salmonella enterica serovars among food handlers working in the catering industry in Nantong, China, a total of 214,542 food handlers' fecal samples were tested for Salmonella in the Nantong CDC (Centers for Disease Control) from 2012 to 2017. Among those tested, 193 (0.09%) were identified to be positive for Salmonella, and the highest detection rate was 0...

BACKGROUND: Reducing the crew size of the galley department on merchant vessels causes heavy workload for the remaining food handlers on board. This situation in return, could trigger risky behaviours and create an unsanitary environment which can facilitate the spread of various gastrointestinal disorders on ships. In such cases, ensuring and supervising food hygiene and food safety on board is up to maritime captains and officers. In addition to that, each crew member on board should maintain a general awareness of food hygiene to prevent any outbreaks...

Food-handler hand-hygiene can be a contributory factor for food-borne illness. Cognitive data (knowledge/attitudes/self-reported practices), while informative, are not indicative of behaviour, and are subject to biases. Consequently, observation of behaviour is superior to survey data. However, researcher presence in direct observation increases reactivity, whereas video observation gives comprehensive analysis over a longer period, furthermore, familiarity reduces reactivity. Although video observation has been used to assess food safety at retail/foodservice, this valuable method is under-utilized in food-manufacturing environments...

Background: Food poisoning (FP) commonly occurs because of consuming contaminated food, which can be fatal. Many people are not aware of the dangers of FP. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of FP among dietetic students (DS) and food handlers (FH) in a public university in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed, and a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 106 respondents...

In summer 2017, a foodborne outbreak occurred in Central Italy, involving 26 workers employed in the post-earthquake reconstruction. After eating a meal provided by a catering service, they manifested gastrointestinal symptoms; 23 of them were hospitalized. The retrospective cohort study indicated the pasta salad as the most likely vehicle of poisoning. Foods, environmental samples, and food handlers' nasal swabs were collected. Bacillus cereus ( Bc ) and coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS) including S. aureus , together with their toxins, were the targets of the analysis...

The scope of this study was to analyze the hygienic-sanitary conditions in nine School Food and Nutrition Units (UANE) of a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). A Best Practices in School Food Checklist proposed and validated by Stedefeldt et al., containing items scored and grouped into six thematic blocks (BT) was applied. The total score (P) results per BT and the final score (PF) were obtained using the Best Practices in School Food software®. The P results in UANE were compared with the classification of Collegiate Board Resolution No...

The most important transmission path of intestinal parasites is the consumption of contaminated water and food. This survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites among food handlers in Kashan, central Iran. This cross-sectional study was carried on 1018 food handlers who referred to the health centers in order to receive health certificate in 2017-2018. Stool samples of food handlers were collected and examined using direct and formalin-ethyl acetate methods. Results were recorded in information form along with some demographic data such as sex, age...

Background: Food handlers with untrimmed finger nails could contribute or serve as a vehicle for the transmission of food poisoning pathogens. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of bacteria and intestinal parasites among food handlers and antibiotic susceptibility profile of the isolated bacteria in Debre Markos University, Ethiopia. Materials and Methods: This laboratory-based cross-sectional study involved 220 food handlers working in food service establishments in Debre Markos University between 1st January 2015 to 31th June 2016...

This study aims to assess food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers in popular public restaurants in Brazil. A questionnaire has been applied with 70 food handlers in different municipalities, with questions related to food safety knowledge and food safety self-reported practices, and observed practices. To check hygienic-sanitary conditions of restaurants, a checklist has been applied. Regarding food safety knowledge, an average of 72.64% of correct answers has been observed. Food safety self-reported practices presented 80...

Various psychosocial and organizational factors have been investigated as determinants of food handlers' food safety behaviours. A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in this area was conducted to identify and synthesize the key behavioural determinants. Standard systematic review steps were followed: comprehensive search strategy; relevance screening; article characterization; risk of bias assessment; data extraction; and random-effects meta-analysis. Sixty-two relevant studies were identified, and knowledge was the most commonly investigated behavioural determinant (n = 51)...

This study defined the prevalence of enterotoxin gene-positive Staphylococcus aureus strains among food handlers and non-food processing healthy nasal S. aureus carriers in central Iran. Meticillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains were diagnosed by cefoxitin disk diffusion. PCR was used to detect the mecA, Sa442, and enterotoxin genes. Out of the 1113 food handlers, 224 (20.1%) were nasal carriers of S. aureus and 157 (70.1%) of these isolates were positive for one or more enterotoxin genes. The most prevalent enterotoxin gene was sei (40...

Human noroviruses (NoV) are recognized worldwide as important pathogens and the primary cause of foodborne disease outbreaks from contaminated food in the U.S. They are often transmitted by infected food handlers manipulating foods during preparation, such as fresh fruits and vegetables. This paper provides a study to model the transfer of NoV between food handlers and vegetables during salad preparation in school food services based on direct observation data. Three transfer pathways were modeled by considering different initial contamination sources (environment, handlers and contaminated produce)...

We used an agent-based modeling (ABM) framework and developed a mathematical model to explain the complex dynamics of microbial persistence and spread within a food facility and to aid risk managers in identifying effective mitigation options. The model explicitly considered personal hygiene practices by food handlers as well as their activities and simulated a spatially explicit dynamic system representing complex interaction patterns among food handlers, facility environment, and foods. To demonstrate the utility of the model in a decision-making context, we created a hypothetical case study and used it to compare different risk mitigation strategies for reducing contamination and spread of Listeria monocytogenes in a food facility...

Efforts to prevent foodborne illnesses in food facilities require sufficient knowledge on hygiene and safety standards from both food processors and customers. However, studies about knowledge, attitude, and practices of customers towards these issues are constrained. This study explored the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of customers regarding the practices of food facilities as well as potential associated factors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Hanoi from September to October 2015. Questions about knowledge, attitude, and practice towards food hygiene and safety were asked, alongside sociodemographic characteristics...

Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) solutions (0, 0.5, or 1.0%) were applied to cantaloupe ("Athena" and "Hale's Best Jumbo" cultivars) rind plugs, either before or after inoculation with a broth culture of Salmonella Michigan (109 CFU/mL) and held at 37°C for 1 or 24 hr. Rind plugs were diluted, shaken, and sonicated, and solutions were enumerated. Texture quality and color were evaluated over 14 days storage at 4°C after 0 and 1% CPC spray applications. A 0.5 or 1.0% (vol/vol) application of CPC after Salmonella reduced the pathogen levels between 2...

Background: Intestinal parasitic infections are major public health problems worldwide, with high prevalence in low income countries where substandard food hygiene practices are common. Asymptomatic food handlers with poor personal hygiene could be potential sources of parasitic infections. This study was aimed to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and associated factors among asymptomatic food handlers working at Haramaya University cafeterias, eastern Ethiopia...